Parade, Santa cap festivities in Naperville's downtown

An expanded holiday celebration, including a new Sunday parade, entertained families, lured shoppers to downtown Naperville and raised significant funds for a local charity.

A 30-minute parade Sunday culminated three days of weekend activities in Naperville's central business district. The Downtown Naperville Alliance organized the parade and Santa's arrival to help attract shoppers on a typically slower day.

"Friday is always a busy shopping day any way, so we decided to schedule Santa's arrival with a parade later in the weekend," said Julie Lichter, director of the alliance. "We had quite a few people attend the parade, despite the cold."

She estimated that up to 700 children visited with Santa between 3 and 5 p.m. on a stage erected on Jefferson Avenue. Gail Andrews, owner of the Canterbury Shoppe, was pleased with the number of people downtown.

"We were very happy with our weekend, especially considering how cold it was," she said. "There was a considerable amount of foot traffic and most people were buying."

Throughout the weekend, shoppers could buy raffle tickets to benefit Little Friends Inc., a Naperville not-for-profit that serves adults and children with developmental, emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Names were drawn for 20 large gift baskets on Sunday.

The first name to be drawn was that of Julia Dunne, 6, of Naperville, who was attending the festivities with her uncle, Mike Banko, who receives services from Little Friends. In addition to the gift basket, she won a first-in-line visit with Santa.

"We're very pleased with the results," she said. "It's great to see that kind of community support."

She said a number of downtown merchants also donated 10 percent of their sales on one or more of the weekend days to the organization. She did not have final figures on how much the merchants donated.

The parade featured about 30 units, including floats, a snow shovel drill team and the Naperettes, a recently organized dancing group. Santa, played by Mayor George Pradel, rode at the end of the parade and attracted the most applause.

"I liked the dancing girls, and I liked Santa at the end," said Hanna Stoffel, 8, of Aurora. "I would definitely want to come again next year."